Thinking Food Design At Paris Design Week 2015

For over fifteen years I have been exploring the possibilities of food integrated into artistic and design practice. In 2011, I put together an exhibition called, Food Design, aventures sensibles at the Lieu du Design in Paris, which captured the spirit and vigour of this new discipline. Teaming up with Earlwyn, we decided to transform the energy from the exhibition into an on-line open platform of exchange, free of sponsors or advertising.

The goal was to identify the key players on an international level in this emerging field. We have attempted to question food from the point of view of design, to imagine our food without constraints or taboos, to break down barriers between creative practices, and to learn from both the hard and soft sciences while observing the (r)evolutions of a global society.

thinkingfooddesign.com brings together a creative community committed to tackling the political and cultural notions of food, and draws the contours of this subject in real time. The fact that food design programmes are opening in art and design schools, as well as universities, prove the dynamic use of design thinking applied to food studies. The cultural, political and social impact of food is quite evident and our platform united different networks on five continents bringing all of these elements and issues a bit closer.

With 24 projects and 12 countries, this exhibition is our first ‘Parisian’ expression of the past three years which has taken the two of us across the world. We are delighted to share this project on the occasion of Paris Design Week 2015 with a special invitation to the Design Academy Eindhoven, where Earlwyn is part of a team that created a new BA called Food Non Food in 2014. Other guests include designers, artists and schools that put food at the heart of their practice.

We sincerely believe that food design encompasses many fields of study and this very fact lends itself to a generalist methodology that is at the same time very open and incredibly free. With all of these considerations including the societal impact of what we put in our mouths, we believe the systems and networks surrounding food should be questioned with every bite. Yes food is a great uniter. There is much to do and much to make. We are only at the beginning…

– Marc Bretillot

Thinking Food Design will be on view September 5-12, 2015 at Galerie Joseph, 4-6 rue de Braque, Paris.

Founded in 2012 by Marc Bretillot and Earlwyn Covington, Thinking Food Design is an ongoing project that asks the question, "What is Food Design?" See the archive of participant responses at thinkingfooddesign.com.